An Assault on Salt

Mayor Bloomberg of New York is embarking on a vendetta against sodium. The mayor and the city’s health department have a stated goal of lowering sodium in packaged and restaurant foods by 25 percent over the course of the next five years. They’ve already won previous battles to try to improve public health by insisting that restaurants ban artificial trans fats and include calorie information on their menus.

Bloomberg’s plan addresses the two largest sources of sodium in the American diet: processed foods and restaurant foods.

Bloomberg’s assault on salt is an effort to curb high blood pressure, thereby cutting back on heart disease risk. Some studies have shown that cutting a gram of salt over the course of ten years could prevent as many as 250,000 cases of heart disease and 200,000 deaths.

Research has demonstrated that Americans currently take in about 3,400 mg of sodium daily, while the recommended maximum for healthy adults is 2,300 mg. And people at higher risk (older adults, African-Americans, and individuals who have already been diagnosed with high blood pressure) should take in even less—around 1,500 mg.

A variety of studies suggests that adhering to sodium maximums could essentially “cure” or prevent 11 million cases of high blood pressure yearly. Other studies have stated that decreasing salt intake by a gram over a decade could cut down on 250,000 cases of heart disease and 200,000 deaths. Yearly cost savings could total about 18 billion a year.

Some people have responded to Bloomberg’s plan with skepticism, with criticisms ranging from concern about unintended negative effects of such a large public measure, to skepticism regarding the numbers of people actually harmed by excess sodium or potentially aided by decreasing sodium intake. Still others feel that the plan is essentially a bit of a sleight-of-hand: they accuse Bloomberg’s administration of distracting the public with his attention to sodium’s public health consequences, while simultaneously avoiding addressing other, more expensive public health and social problems, like unhealthy school lunches (which are chock-full of sodium and fat, and tend to skimp on fresh vegetables and fruit).

In the meantime, if you’re interested in decreasing your sodium intake, consider the following steps:

Get that salt shaker off the table – instead, flavor your food with lemon juice or herbs and spices.

Cut back on packaged, processed foods, salty condiments, and frozen or canned foods.

If you need to use packaged foods, learn to read labels, so you can choose lower-sodium options.

Use fresh ingredients, and make it yourself: Home-cooking tends to bring the least additional sodium into the diet.

When you eat out, request that your food be made without added salt.

Cut back gradually on the amount of salt you add while cooking; your taste buds will adjust. A lot of people say the real taste of the food is actually more evident and enjoyable, once they learn not to rely on salt to provide the flavor in every dish.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD

Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD integrates an undergraduate English degree from Kalamazoo College and a medical degree from Michigan State University in her work as a medical writer, editor, and consultant. She...read more